


Reds

by RedAlligator



Series: Marin's romance and sad boy stories [1]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst, Discrimination, Eventual Smut, F/M, Fluff, Homosexuality, Internalized Homophobia, M/M, Male Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Minor Injuries, Miraculous Side Effects, One sided soulmates, Slow Burn, Some salt, Strangers to Friends to Lovers, miraculous swap
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-13
Updated: 2021-03-20
Packaged: 2021-03-20 22:48:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Underage
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,211
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30012123
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedAlligator/pseuds/RedAlligator
Summary: Jason Todd has been left to fend for himself in Paris By Talia Al-ghul. With no other option he starts looking for somewhere to work, he finds the opportunity for a live in position at the Tom and Sabine Boulangerie Patisserie. He would be a fool to not take the position when it's all but handed to him on a silver platter. He wasn't expecting to meet Marin Dupain-Cheng, a redmarked teen who seems to be alternating between getting beat-up and saving not only his life but the lives of those who're injuring him.---Marin has been having a rough go of it lately. Being the hero Catmint has become a lot to handle with the realization that no mater what he does no one will see him as more than a side-kick. Added to that his parent's increasing lack of trust in him and oh yeah he's Redmarked. Destined to watch as the person who his soul is bonded to falls in love with someone else. Not all soul bonds go both ways so even though he feels all the pain of Adrien Agreste, the blonde will never feel Marin's pain- instead he feels the pain of Kagami Tsurugi.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Kagami Tsurugi, Alya Césaire/Nino Lahiffe, Bridgette/Félix Graham de Vanily, Luka Couffaine & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug/Jason Todd
Series: Marin's romance and sad boy stories [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2207814
Comments: 6
Kudos: 41





	1. Chapter 1

Jason hated Talia sometimes. She’d left him in Paris and told him if he didn’t get control of his emotions than someone would for him. It was honestly a really confusing statement, who would take control of him? Why Paris? He didn’t know, but he did know that he needed to find somewhere to stay and possibly a job, depending on how long Talia was planning on leaving him alone. 

With that thought he started walking, a flyer caught his eye, it was in a rather strange place, it wasn’t in a good part of town, nor was it in a heavy area for foot traffic, it almost looked like it was put there so only certain people would find it. The flyer was advertising a full-time position at a Bakery “Tom and Sabine Boulangerie Patisserie'', and it offered a live in option because the hours were apparently horrendous. He wrote down the address of the bakery he took the opportunity with a grain of salt and a reminder that 112 was France’s version of 911.

When he arrived at the address he was surprised, for one it was actually a bakery, he’d half convinced himself it was some human trafficking ring. It was a rather nice building, the bottom level was the bakery and stacked on top of it was four levels of what looked to be a normal house. From what he could see of the inside it looked rather cozy, there were a few tables, but the majority of the space was taken up by two large pastry cases holding a small bounty of treats and breads. 

He couldn’t find a problem with going in and applying for a job, which is why he begrudgingly crossed the street and entered the quaint shop. A bell rang as he opened the door, causing a rather small Asian woman to look up from where she was filling a box. She smiled, it wrinkled the corners of her eyes, if he had to describe how he looked he would probably say something sappy like kind. 

“How can I help you?” her voice was soft, but it carried across the shop easily. 

“I saw a flyer advertising a job here, is the position still available?” 

He watched as her eyes widened, mouth slightly agape, “Yes, it is! I’m sorry it’s just those flyers have only been up for a few hours. My son put them up before he went to school today.” she gave an excited bounce, before turning away from him for a moment. “Tom! Come here, this nice young man wants to apply for the live-in position!” 

“Already?” A hulking man ducked under the doorway behind the register, he was no shorter than 6’6 and his arms alone were probably thicker than even Batman’s. “It’s nice to meet you, my name’s Tom Dupain, and this is my wife Sabine Cheng.” 

“Do you want to start an interview now or do you need to get anything before we begin?”

Jason thought for a moment, the duffel bag Talia had all but shoved him out of the car with held everything he needed. A motorcycle license, a passport saying he was from Denver Colorado, even a few poisons and a gun for “emergencies”. 

“I have everything I need right here.” Jason rubbed the back of his neck, “This is kinda a last resort I don’t really have anywhere to live right now.” Pulling at heartstrings always worked with honest people. 

He watched as Sabine glanced at her husband with a worried look on her face, he was looking down with a similar look. “Well we’ll see what we can do for you. Do you want to go upstairs with me so I can ask you a few questions?” 

He put on his most blinding smile, “That’d be great sir.” 

The large man led him through the bakery to a staircase that probably went to every floor, the floor directly above the bakery belonged to the couple, the third floor had two rooms on it one of which was occupied by their daughter, the other had been turned into a bonus space that also belonged to the daughter, and the fourth floor held a kitchen and living room type area. They settled at the breakfast bar. 

“So the hours for this job will be a bit of a hard sell, but you have to be up by 4 in the morning at least most days, we’re closed on Sundays and Mondays, and occasionally we’ll have to ask you to help with catering events. Though mostly our son Marin or our daughter Bridgette will be covering those events with us.” the man floundered for a moment, “I’ll need an Id of some kind and we can pay you in either cash or go to a bank account if you have one.” 

Jason unzipped his duffle bag careful to keep the firearm well out of the baker’s view, and pulled out the leather wallet Talia had gifted him. Inside was an ID that read Jason Keener age 17, eyes green, height 6’0. 

Something he’d learned from Talia was to keep as close to the truth as possible because as soon as someone thought you were lying they began looking outside of the name and age you said was yours. Tom smiled at him and took the wallet from his outstretched hand checking over the information before nodding. 

“I suppose I should actually get to asking you questions.” Tom smiled at him, “Do you have any allergies?” 

“No allergies, or intolerances.” 

“Have you ever worked in a bakery or helped with cake decorating?” 

“I never worked in a bakery but I did help my grandfather when he was baking, and I decorated a few cakes for my father.” Jason thought back to the first time he helped Alfred when he was in the kitchen, the old man had been gentle with his corrections and if he was being fully honest he’d found baking with Alfred rather fun. 

“That's good if I’m being honest you’ll probably end up being trained outside of the kitchen by Marin. He’s a good boy a little scatterbrained sometimes but he’s really good at decorating so he’s mostly in charge of our super detailed cakes.” There was a small almost sad smile on the baker’s face. Jason was slightly perturbed by the look- Tom talked about his son like he had some sort of mental illness, “Oh sorry only two more questions. Do you speak any other languages?” 

“Yes, I speak English and Spanish.” 

“That’s good, now we have a four language household. You might end up sharing a room with Marin, he’s pretty clean and doesn’t stay up too late, would you be okay with that?”

Jason stumbled for a moment, “Uh, sure I don’t mind as long as your son doesn’t.” it wasn’t ideal to share a room with what he assumed to be a teenage boy. Most teenagers had poor hygiene, bad cleaning habits, and were far too curious for their own good. That being said- he would also be able to snoop through the teen’s room so if he was really a problem he could just blackmail the kid. 

A smile spread across the man’s face, it was clear that Tom was rarely doing something other than smiling. “That’s perfect! You can move in today, we really need the help as soon as possible.” 

Jason smiled. It really felt way too easy to get a job so fast but it looked like the couple were the only people actively running the bakery and if the size of the order being filled was anything to go by- the bakery was very popular. Tom announced his departure stating that Jason could help clean the shop with Marin at 5:30 which was about an hour away, the large man also told him to help himself to anything in their fridge or pantry. 

Not even ten minutes later he heard someone walking up the stairs, to their credit he only knew because one of the first things Bruce had taught him was to recognize quiet footsteps. Why? You may be asking. Because if someone was trying to walk quietly they were either in trouble or about to cause trouble. A teenage boy walked into the kitchen, there was a slight limp in his right leg but that was nothing compared to the purple bruise that covered the entirety of his left cheek. The poor bastard looked like he just survived one hell of a beating. 

“Did you apply for the full time position?” 

The question shocked Jason into reality, “Yeah I did. Are you Marin?” 

The teen continued on his path to the fridge pulling out a carton of milk, “Yep that’s me, I assume you’ve already been hired?” Jason nodded as the teen grabbed a glass cup from one of the cabinets, “I’m just gonna tell you this now so you don’t feel betrayed by me or whatever it is people feel,” the teen sighed, he looked absolutely done with whatever was going on in his life. “I’m redmarked or a soulless or whatever the hell you want to call it.” he poured his milk setting the carton down, Jason looked right into the blue eyes opposite of him. “So if you’re planning on stabbing me while I’m sleeping make sure you hit your mark. And if your planning on raping me at least have the decency to drug me first.” the teen downed the milk in a single shot, smiled a half broken smile, and placed the now dirty glass in the dishwasher and limped up the stairs that led to the top floor. 

Jason stared after Marin for a moment. Whatever had happened to that poor kid, Jason thought to himself- was so fucked up that not even Two-face would stand by and watch it happen. Just as he was getting ready to at the very least make sure Marin’s injuries weren’t deadly, a very out of breath blue haired teen rushed up the stairs into the kitchen. 

“Is…" the blue haired teen sent him a confused look, "who the fuck are you?” 

“I’m the new live in employee.” 

“Great another way for the family to pretend they trust Marin.” it was muttered against the teen’s hand-Jason caught every word of it. “Let me guess you ‘might have to share a room with our son.’ or something like that?” there was an almost murderous look in his eyes, he shook himself like he was attempting to get a thought out of his head. “You know what that doesn’t matter right now. Is Marin here?” 

“He just went upstairs.” 

“Thank you.” before Jason could ask any sort of question the blue haired teen rushed up the same stairs that Marin had been on minutes before. 

\---

Marin hated his fucking life. His leg hurt like hell, his face was bruised- and it was only going from purple into black. All he wanted to do was cry, but he’d been doing too much of that recently. He was sure his back was worse based on the aching of his ribs and the fact he could barely raise his arms above his head. 

The trapdoor that led into his room slammed open, and Luka clambered into the room. He looked pissed, Marin forced himself to stay where he was. If he even attempted to move he would surely burst into tears, so he let Luka come to him. 

The older boy settled behind him, “Marin, where does it hurt the most?” his voice was gentle, like he was afraid if his voice was any louder Marin would shatter like glass. 

Marin sniffed, and forced the tears to stay where they were. “My back, I need help getting my shirt off.” 

Luka started to gently lift the wet material, the cotton was becoming steadily more stained with crimson liquid. He pulled the shirt over his friend's head whispering apologies when he heard the younger boy take in a sharp breath. 

“Oh god Marin what the hell did they do to you?” 

“They dragged me down the road before deciding it was too much work and settled for kicking the crap out of me.” His voice cracked, “Luka how bad does it look?” 

“You won’t need stitches. I’m going to get something to disinfect the cuts. Don’t. Move.” Marin heard his older friend begin to rummage under the sink in his room, “Where’s your ibuprofen?” 

“It should be on my desk.” 

Luka walked by Marin, giving a gentle pat on his head as he passed. Grabbing the bottle filled with little orange pills. He crouched on the floor and placed two of the pills and a full water bottle in front of the ravenette. 

Luka settled behind his injured friend. Marin’s back was a bloody mess, road rash never looked good , and the already forming bruising made everything look worse. Blood was trickling onto the few untouched parts of his back.

Marin hissed at the first touch of the disinfectant against his skin, it burned into his wounds like a snake striking its prey. It dripped into another wound as Luka pressed pure white gauze on top of the wound highest on his back, sealing it after making sure that there was no debris in the wound. 

The process repeated itself again and again as Luka inspected the wounds and either tried to carefully dig out little rocks or decided they were clean enough. Though he always poured a little extra disinfected on the ones he couldn’t see anything in, it was always good to be cautious. 

“Alright that’s the last one.” he heard Marin let out a heavy breath, his back was now covered in tape and gauze. “I have to go home, Juleka and I are making dinner for my mom, but if you need help call me or I swear to god I’ll kill you.” 

“ I will, don’t worry too much.” Marin smiled at his friend. “Before you go could you help me get up?” 

Luka carefully put his hand in Marin’s pulling the smaller boy on to his feet. Taking a few extra measures to keep the ravenette off of his injured leg. “I’m serious Marin. Call me if you need help.” 

“I will. I’ve got to go close, be safe on your way home.” 

Luka nodded and left Marin to get prepared for the work he was already running a little late for. It was already 5:30 and if he wanted to close he would have to go downstairs. And he should probably talk to the teen who was sitting in the kitchen. With that thought he started to go down the stairs that were connected to his room. He stopped halfway down the staircase, waiting for him in the kitchen wasn’t only the stranger who would be living with them but his father and mother.

“Marin, there you are! This is Jason.” his father gestured to the man next to him. He had black hair that had a strange white streak in the front and his eyes were a hypnotic green. “Can you show him how to close tonight?” 

“Yeah I can.” Marin forced himself to stop limping the rest of the way down the stairs and past his parents, “Come on, I’ll show you where all the cleaning supplies are.” 

Jason followed the younger teen without argument, as soon as they were out of the couples vision the ravenette began to limp again. Going down the staircase Jason took the time to study the limping boy. He hadn’t made an attempt to cover the bruise on his face, but he hid his limp? That was strange if he didn’t want his parents to know about the fight he would have worked harder to cover it up. Maybe he wanted them to think it was a one hit issue?

“Alright, so this is the closet that holds most of the cleaning supplies. The top shelf has the harder chemicals like bleach and ammonia.” he gestured slightly to the shelf, “I’m assuming you know not to mix the two?” 

“Yes, I know that it makes chlorine gas.”

“Good, but mainly what happens when the store closes is we sweep the floors first in the store then in the back where all the baking happens.” he handed Jason a broom, “after we finish doing this we’ll mop the floors and clean out the pastry shelves. We generally keep a loaf or two of bread just for us. Feel free to taste anything that’s left in the cases. After we clean out the pastry cases we’ll wash them off, that’s pretty quick though.”

Jason nodded, Marin was already getting to work. Sweeping in front of the cases where the most foot traffic would be. Not wanting to be worthless Jason also began to sweep. Letting the younger teen direct him, before he knew it the floors were clean and he had helped to dry the large metal sheets that held the various sweets and breads during the day. 

After they finished Marin had collected three of the four loaves of bread left as well as all the tarts there were only 4, and also collected the 12 cookies that were left on the shelf. It was about 6:20 when Marin left the bakery with his bag full of goodies. And it was 6:22 when Jason decided it would be better to spend his time moving into his room, than it would be to follow the limping teen through the streets of Paris-at least for tonight.


	2. Chapter 2

Marin wandered the streets of Paris. He needed some air after the absolute fuckery of his day, it had started when his parents asked him to put up flyers advertising a live in position. A position that he hadn’t even known his parents were considering. He had the sneaking suspicion that the reason he was left out of the loop on that decision was due to the fact it would affect him the most. There was nothing he could do about it though and if he was being honest Jason was at least an okay person from what he’d seen. 

The older teen was taller than him by a good seven inches or so and was built like a brick house. He also did what Marin asked him to without complaint, which was admittedly very nice. He had a strange kind of dark aura floating around him, but other than that he was okay. Marin would say that Jason was the highlight of his day, and that was sad. 

His entire day was very average in a bad way. He’d hung the flyers before running to school, and then he stewed in the back of the class-playing with his ring, and reminding himself that Plag was probably sitting inside his bag waiting for the classroom to turn into an MMA match like the kwami had been hoping for the last three months. Marin reminded himself that telling everyone that Lila was a liar only ever backfired on him, and where it would be satisfying as hell and also make Plag proud- Marin in fact would not deck Lila Rosi so hard the truth came out of her. So he sat in the back of the class and forced himself not to look at the Italian who was weaving lies only three rows in front of him- in his old spot.

When lunch came he had decided to nap in the back of the class. Marin wasn’t hungry enough to eat, not to mention Luka, Dingo, and Brielle were on a field trip so he couldn’t go hang out with them at the Lycee. He also hadn’t been able to sleep until almost five in the morning leaving him running on fumes. Marin pulled his messenger bag onto his desk and used it as a pillow. It was a really nice nap, until he was awoken by the gentle nudging of Nino. 

Nino had been his friend before they began Ecole, and the look on the brunette’s face scared him. His eyebrows were scrunched together, his lips were pressed tightly together. Apology was written all over his face. Any ounce of sleepiness was shocked out of his system when he registered what that look meant. 

“Are you okay? What’s going on?” 

Then he heard fake sobs and a cold realization seeped into his chest. He should have just gone home instead of sleeping in the classroom. Her crocodile tears began falling faster. 

“Marin, how could you pretend to not know what happened?” she sniffed, “I told you that in confidence you would keep it to yourself.” 

He suppressed a sigh- it would only make him look bad. “What did you tell me?” 

“You told everyone about who I think my soulmate is.” Marin would give it to her, she was getting a lot better at fake crying. 

“Did I do this while sleeping in a locked classroom or in the last three minutes I’ve been awake?”

Alya stood from where she was comforting the liar, “Do you have any proof you were actually here?” 

“Do you have any proof I wasn’t?” 

That caused the journalist to flounder for a moment, “When else could you spread that information? Lila said she told you before school.” 

“When I was putting up flyers for my parents?” 

“Yeah, you were hanging flyers near where I live. I just wanted to tell someone what was happening.” her sobs carried through the room, “Everyone told me what a good listener you are, I just wanted us to get along.” her words were split by strategic hiccups. 

Marin refrained from asking why she lived next to an alleyway known for harboring homeless people. “Just so I’m not confused, you told me- someone who supposedly hates you- a secret about your own theorizing about who your soulmate is and expected me not to tell everyone in my damn contact list?” 

Nino suppressed a laugh from where he continued to stand next to Marin’s desk, pressing a hand over his mouth to hide the smile spreading there. Lila sobbed louder, “I just wanted us to get along. I don’t understand why you felt the need to tell everyone I thought my soulmate could be Adrien.” 

Marin felt his blood run cold. The very idea that Lila was the one Adrien was supposed to be with instead of him stung in a way he couldn’t even begin to describe, it was like his heart was being crushed and he was drowning at the same time. “Adrien has a pain bond Lila- in fact he has a pain bond with a very good friend of mine. And if the two of them would figure it out already it would make my life a hell of a lot easier.” He was glad Adrien had been pulled out of class to do a photo shoot. 

That got his classmates attention, as a single unit every person in the room turned to look at him. An oppressive silence fell over the room as even Lila stopped her fake sobbing. Alix was the one to break the quiet, “WHAT” 

Marin felt heat rise onto his face, “We-well I-I it’s kinda obvious. Haven’t any of you noticed?” 

“How can you tell?” Chloe was just about falling out of her seat in an attempt to get closer to Marin. 

“When soulmates are together even if they don’t know they’re soulmates they still react to each other like they’re old friends- their body language and their speech patterns change into something more friendly.” Kagami smiled more freely around Adrien, “It’s kinda obvious but I don’t say anything about it because it’s not my place and it lets them get to know each other before they realize they’re soulmate’s so they don’t rush into something they’re not ready for.” 

The class was openly gawking at the ravenette, their mouths open, “You mean you just notice when soulmates are together because they treat each other nicer?”

“It's more than that. I mean literally you never see them act so familiar with anyone else and they just gravitate towards each other. I think it's kind of sweet.” he knew his tone had slipped into something unbelievably soft by the way Nino and Mylene were looking at him. “But I could be wrong, they could just have some sort of platonic connection.” 

“Have you ever been wrong before?” was Lila’s sniffled question, his silence was enough of an answer for the brunette. “I really don’t want to be wrong about who my soulmate is, but thanks for telling me. Unless you're telling me because you don’t want to see me and Adrien together.” 

Ms. Bustier walked into the class preventing the conversation from evolving any further. Marin wished- not for the first time that he wasn’t such a good person. If he was a bad person he would be able to stand up right in the middle of class and slap the smirk on the Italian’s face right off of it. But he refrained mainly to prevent Ms. Bustier having another reason to dislike him. 

The rest of the day was normal he took notes in Ms. Melendeleiev’s class, tried to not get too far ahead of Nino and Nathaniel in gym- and ignored the gym teacher’s disappointed look because the man knew for a fact Marin could run faster and lift more than just about everyone in the class. Then the day had ended and the ravenette began his walk home- which was to say he prepared to walk less than three blocks. 

He was halfway home when he was jumped by the trio he hadn’t seen in almost two months. The three boys had been away at a reform school, courtesy of some other poor person they’d beat up. They grabbed him and began dragging him to the seine. The ravenette had learned alot about fighting over the years and even though he didn’t want to draw too much attention, squirming around had been enough to make the boys give up on their plans of drowning him. Marin didn’t remember anything after that until Luka was asking him questions. 

Marin shook himself out of his thoughts as he approached where he’d put the flyers. The area was known for the amount of homeless people it harbored. The alleyway was close to enough businesses that they had easy access to food that was being thrown out and the police didn’t come through the area enough for those who lived on the streets to be chased away- so it was the perfect place to go when there was nowhere else. 

“Hey Abela, you stayin’ out of trouble?” Marin smiled as he called out to the older woman. 

“Oh you know me Mari- I never stay out of trouble.” she smiled and winked at him a light chuckle in her words. 

“Well just don’t draw too much attention, I know it’ll be hard for you.” he came closer to the old woman giving her a quarter of a loaf of braided bread. “Be safe now Abela I’ll come by again tomorrow.” 

“Don’t you worry about me go see all the others, they’re waiting for the sunshine to come in.” 

A blush rushed up his cheeks as the old woman smirked at him. He limped further down the alley breaking up the bread and sweets so they could be divided more evenly among those who called the alley their home. He couldn’t always feed them all but he made sure to keep the extra bread and food from the bakery to give to the small population. He came to the end of the alley, to the last person who he needed to give food to. 

Hayden Cutter was an American or so he’d said when Marin first met the man. Hayden was a strange case- he was gone in the way you would expect out of an eighty or ninety year old, yet he appeared to be no older than 60. Marin had managed to pull a few small details from the man. Hayden only spoke in half broken sentences, like he was waiting for someone else to jump in and fill in the blanks. 

Main supposed he was qualified to understand the man better than most due to his own stutter- it had gotten much better since he was a child but when he was embarrassed or scared it resurfaced and normally people tried to calm him rather than understand him. Which in turn flustered him more and he only became harder to understand. 

“Mari, so good to … you.” there was a smile on the man’s face, he smiled a sad sort of smile. As long as Marin had known him it was the only smile Hayden showed to anyone

“It’s good to see you too Hayden, are you doing okay?” 

“Yeah, just waiting … Marianne.” He brightened as he said her name, “We were … meet at the seine,” his brows wrinkled as if he was trying to come up with the words. “But all I found … red.” 

Marin watched as the distressed expression on the man’s face simply disappeared, faded into a blank almost lifeless expression. “Well if I hear anything I’ll ask about it okay? But until then have some bread, it’s enriched dough.” 

“Thanks Mari…. Safe going home.” 

“I will be Hayden. Stay safe, okay?” the man nodded and Marin took that as his opportunity to begin the short trek back home.

\---

Jason sighed- the place Tom had led him to after describing it as the only open space was in fact in the room he’d seen Marin disappear into. There was a loft bed at the end of the room farthest from the trapdoor, under it was a desk that held a computer, sewing machine and a variety of pictures that showed the boy hanging out with other teenagers and a few showing a girl who could only be Marin’s sister Bridgette. 

There were strange voids between the pictures, it looked like there used to be more pictures- and if there were they were most likely taken down recently. Everything else in the room had some sort of order to it; the sketchbooks went from oldest to newest, the fabric was arranged in a way that Jason supposed made sense if you sorted them- he couldn’t see any pattern to it but then again fabric identification was never very important to him, the desktop was in lines- apps, games, files. He had a suspicion that the order of the games and the files also meant something but Jason didn’t want to get caught snooping through his roommate's stuff on the first day. So he forced himself to turn away from the computer. 

Instead he focused on the double sided cork board that was covered by a sheet. The urge to tear the sheet off of it was tempting to follow- but he didn’t know how that would affect whatever was underneath it. Jason only peaked at the board, what he saw was possibly the most intense plotting map he’d ever seen, there were different colors of yarn and different colored pins. The most predominant color of yarn was purple though that was quickly followed by red and then yellow. The pins were mostly white followed by red again, and then the pins became sporadic in their color and placement. He was about to look at the other side when he heard what sounded suspiciously like footsteps on the roof. There was a few seconds of silence before they landed right next to a trapdoor in the ceiling- right over Marin’s bed. 

The door opened and Jason didn’t know what he was expecting- but it certainly wasn’t Marin to hop down onto the loft bed and hiss in pain as he stumbled slightly and put just a little too much weight on his injured leg. 

The teen seemed perfectly happy to wallow silently in pain, only noticing that Jason was watching the spectacle when the older teen began to speak, “Are you okay?” one of his eyebrows was tilted in question but the smirk covering his face made it clear he was enjoying the show. 

A bright red flush rushed up Marin’s face, he turned his head in an almost mechanical movement. And he squeaked- That was the only way Jason could describe the sound that left the ravenette “I’m fine.” 

Marin flopped onto the bed allowing his head to flop off the edge of the bed to gaze at the man who looked entirely too pleased with himself. “I guess I should help you set up the futon, or do you want an air mattress?” Jason watched the teen wince as he forced himself to sit up, digging the upper part of his back into the railing next to where he had thrown his head back. 

“I’ll just take the futon. Thanks for asking.” Jason took the opportunity to study Marin’s face, watching as the 

The ravenette all but threw himself off the bed- the stairs that led up to the bed were almost avoided entirely and Jason was almost certain the teen was going to injure himself again only to be surprised as he landed only on his left leg.

“Okay, we’ll probably be having dinner soon but then I’ll show you how to put it down.” Marin froze for a moment, his eyebrows coming closer together as if he was contemplating something. “I have nightmares sometimes- they’re real quiet. I don’t scream or bolt out of bed but I like to work after I wake up so I might end up turning on a light of some kind during the night.” 

“That’s fine as long as you don’t make too much noise I’ll probably stay asleep.” the teen had willingly given him a warning. So Jason thought it was only fair he gave his own warning, “I also have nightmares occasionally they tend to be a little bit violent, it’s better if you don’t touch me while I’m having them.” 

Marin nodded but grimaced, something akin to understanding crossing over his face. Jason noticed the ravenette open his mouth to say something when he was interrupted by a call from below. 

“Jason, Marin- it’s time for dinner, and Bridgette is here so you can meet her!” 

“Okay Papa, we’re coming.” the teen gestured for Jason to go towards the trapdoor, following after the taller boy after the door was opened.

Jason walked down the stairs only to catch sight of a girl- young woman really, who looked almost identical to the boy behind him that apparently preferred to get into his room via the roof. Her hair was longer going about halfway down her back and kept in pigtails resting at the base of her skull. Her face was slightly more feminine but the main difference he would point out would be the way she held herself. 

Bridgette stood like she didn’t have a care in the world; her shoulders were relaxed, her back straight and there was an air of confidence around her that was put out without her really trying. If he had to put a word to her it would be popular- she wasn’t a stereotypical popular kid though, she was popular because she gave off the feeling that she knew exactly what she was doing even if she didn’t. 

Almost a direct contrast to her younger brother. Marin’s posture and stance yelled that he was somewhere between drowning and killing something. His shoulders hunched, but even though he had been beaten only hours later he was fine. The way he looked at Jason was a dead give away; when he met Marin after he’d been patched up the first thing the teen had done was size him up- looked him over the way only those who had experience fighting did. Focused on the fact he was trying to hide his muscle mass, watched the way he carried himself. Just like Jason had done to Marin. And just like Jason, Marin was aware that they were both hiding something. 

The girl laughed at something that her mother had said, before she caught sight of the two boys standing on the stairs. She sent a bright smile towards them, it seemed to be more focused on him than on Marin. Though that wasn’t strange- sibling relationships weren’t something you could understand even if you had a sibling or two. With the short amount of time he’d spent with Dick he started to understand that. 

“Hi, my name’s Bridgette. It’s nice to meet you!” she held out her hand, before hesitating in the motion and instead she whipped her flour covered hands on the apron hanging from her neck. “Sorry about that.” 

He took the hand she offered, shaking it with a firm grip. Before letting go, there was no need to have an awkwardly long hand shake on their first meeting. “I’m Jason, it’s nice to meet you too.” the girl’s blue eyes slid from Jason onto her brother, her brow creasing and the smile slipping slightly.

Jason could only guess that the concerned look was earned by the large bruise that Marin had yet to cover. “Hey Bridge. How’s Felix doing?” his tone was relaxed, and if that was anything to go on- the look was a normal occurrence and that could also mean he could expect the teen to come home bruised and bloody often. Concern melted into a glare that would have scared him had he not grown up in Gotham 

Bridgette continued to glare at her brother as he sat at the breakfast bar, “He’s doing fine, he finally decided that he’s going to be staying in his own apartment rather than with his uncle.” 

“Does that mean you're going to move out?” Marin’s back straightened as he asked the question, excitement burning in his eyes. 

The woman stepped around Jason and hit the back of Marin’s head in a way that Jason could describe as in a very sibling way. “Don’t you get your hopes up yet. I still have another year of Lycee before university.” 

It was strangely comforting to see the interaction between the two. It was teasing in all the ways a sibling relationship should be. During his time with Talia he didn’t really have time to build or see relationships unless he was watching a target- and most targets were horrible people so he only watched them long enough that he could understand their schedule and get the job done quickly and effectively. 

Sabine and Tom were setting the table allowing the siblings to finish their conversation before calling them over. “Could you grab the stew Marin?” 

The teen nodded, hopping off of the chair and then making his way over to a drawer where he pulled out two red hotpads so he could grab the pot that was bubbling on the stove. He picked the large pot off of the stove walking to the table and putting it down on a trivet before he turned and walked back to the stove turning it off. 

“Alright everything’s ready. Oh right Jason what do you want to drink? We have milk, water and we might have some soda around here if that’s what you like.” Sabine was already walking towards the fridge glass in hand. 

“Water sounds good to me.” 

Bridgette and Tom were already sitting at the table waiting for the other three to join them, and when they did it was a quick affair. There was no prayer or anything to announce they were allowed to eat. Marin had thanked his parents for the food before serving himself a scoop of the stew before serving his sister, mother, and father. The teen seemed hesitant to do the same for Jason- probably because they had known each other for all of three hours and Marin had no idea how much he ate. 

The hesitation was short lived as the teen served him a scoop, and slowly got another scoop prepared if he wanted one. “Thanks, could you give me a little more?” a nervous smile presented it on his face as he gave Jason another ladle full. 

“So Jason where’re you from?” Tom was steadily salting his stew, mixing it in before tasting it and deciding it was good enough. 

“I lived in Gotham for the majority of my life but I moved to Colorado a few years ago with my Dad.” it took effort not to spit out the last word like it was a curse. What kind of father didn’t avenge the death of their child- let their murderer walk free and continue to kill other innocent children? 

“How’d you end up in Paris?” Bridgette was sitting on the edge of her seat, curiosity burning through her veins. 

“My father and I had a disagreement, it’s been going on for a while so I decided to leave. It’ll be good for us to be apart for a while. I had enough money saved up and I always wanted to go to Europe so I figured now was the time.” he rubbed the back of his head, “I didn’t really think of what I’d do for money or where I’d live though.” 

A reminiscent smile spread over Sabine’s face, “I understand that.” her and Tom shared a loving glance at one another. “When I was nineteen I decided I wanted to travel and ended up meeting Tom when he was with his mother in Italy.” a bright laugh left the small woman, “I didn’t understand a single word of Italian or French. But when I met Tom it was like my entire life fell into place, I just knew he was my soulmate.” 

Marin shifted uncomfortably in the chair next to him looking over his shoulder and out the window. A piercing sound rang through the room, the ravenette pulled his phone out of an inside pocket hidden on the right side of his jacket. 

His eyes widened slightly and before Jason could react Marin had all but jumped out of his chair rushing over to the window. An identical piercing sound rang through the other three peoples phones, almost in unison the family checked the alert. 

A quiet “Oh fuck.” was the only warning he got before Marin was yelling “Get down, get down right now.” 

Jason wasn’t one to hesitate, but the fact the three in the family still at the table had hit the floor before the teen could even finish the sentence was strange. And left him wanting to go over to where Marin was still standing by the window, and then the ravenette turned glanced at him. Some sort of understanding clicked when the teen saw him. 

And then Marin was all but tackling him onto the ground. Right as he was forced onto the floor something tore through the wall and Jason found himself looking at the stars rather than the ceiling that was previously above him. 

“What the hell was that!?” 

Marin propped himself up so he was no longer pressing himself on top of Jason, a glare on his face, “An akuma.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope your enjoying this so far! please leave a comment or tell me what you think of the story. Tell me if you notice any mistakes and also advice is appreciated, so if you have any ideas about how I could do or write something better I'd really appreciate it.

**Author's Note:**

> Marin is the genderbent version of Marinette that's been bouncing around my head for a while, he's a darker character and is the holder of the Cat Miraculous. He has a lot of struggles that Marinette doesn't have to deal with. The main point in this version of him in this story is that he's Redmarked.  
> Being redmarked is kind of like being the child of a serial killer- everyone is waiting for when you snap and kill or injure someone so even though Marin is a genuinely kind person and would only hurt someone in either self-defenses or defending someone else, every one is waiting for the day when he breaks and shows his true colors.


End file.
